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October 2014 - Hometrack House Price Cities Index

House price growth across all 20 cities is running at more than 5% per annum versus earnings growth of 1.3% per annum.

There are clear signs of a slowdown in the rate of UK house price growth

The slowdown in growth is most marked in London and some of the smaller southern cities as prices slow off a high base.

The pick up in house price growth over the last 18 months has spread across the UK with all 20 cities covered by Hometrack’s index registering house price growth of over 5% per annum. Average earnings are rising at just 1.3% per annum. This is the first time in a decade that all 20 cities have simultaneously registered growth of more than 5%p per annum.

London and Bristol are registering the highest rates of growth at 17.3% and 13.2% respectively. Glasgow and Liverpool are registering the slowest annual growth at 5.5% per annum against a UK average of 9.2%.

Cities with the lowest rate of growth in the spring have seen the strongest pick-up as prices rise off a low base e.g. Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

While the trend has been a steady acceleration in house price growth, there are clear signs that momentum is starting to slow. In the three months to May 2014 the average monthly increase in UK house prices was 1%. In the three months to October 2014 this has now slowed to 0.6% as demand softens.

Table 1: City Level SummarySource: Hometrack House Price Indices

There are a number of factors at play. First there is less pent-up demand for housing than 2 years ago. Those households that wanted to move and were in a financial position to do so are likely to have done so.

Second, the introduction of mortgage affordability tests in April and the more recent introduction of loan to income caps in October are constraining demand from marginal buyers i.e. those requiring a sizable mortgage relative to their income and/or those whose finances are less well able to deal with an increase in interest rates.

Growth across 20 UK cities outpaces earnings

Fig 1: Year on year house price inflationSource: Hometrack House Price Indices

Fig 2: UK House Price InflationSource: Hometrack House Price Indices

The impact has been particularly evident in London where absolute prices are highest and house price growth has been strongest, especially in ‘emerging market’ areas of inner south east and inner north east London where first time buyers have been active.

Weaker demand is feeding more quickly into house prices in smaller cities such as Oxford and Cambridge where prices are down by an average of -0.4% and -0.8% respectively in the last three months. Price falls have also been registered in Aberdeen (-0.7% ave. in last quarter) where a falling oil price is impacting on market sentiment in an economy buoyed by the strength of the oil price in recent years.

Elsewhere across the largest cities the overall trend has been steady upwards growth with average prices moving back towards levels last seen in 2007.

The emerging slowdown in the housing market will be welcome news for policy makers who want to avoid a debt fuelled acceleration in house prices supported by record low mortgage rates. We expect the rate of house price growth to slow further in the run up to the year end.

October 2014 - Hometrack House Price Cities Index

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